An Expedient Calendar

Zirthus (I wanted a word that sounded something like “surface”) is blessed, not coincidentally, with an astronomical situation which makes its calendar very simple. There are 360 days in a Zirthus year, there are 12 months, and there are exactly 30 days to each month. Zirthus has a single moon, whose cycle is also precisely 30 days. There are five weeks to a month, each week being 6 days long. Typically, one day a week is left unworked.

Due to religious conflict over the naming of the days of the month, and months of the year, a compromise was reached a long time ago. All of the months are based on (Jeff Rient's) Gods of Neutrality (with three personal exceptions and some name butchering). They are listed relative to our months, in parentheses:

1: (January) Hewl
2: (February) Vafrim
3: (March) Rubi
4: (April) Mashkurk
5: (May) Irshar
6: (June) Solanio
7: (July) Lashu
8: (August) Dothagen
9: (September) Cron
10: (October) Ituchi
11: (November) Herstii
12: (December) Varuzon

The days of the week are also based on the names of Neutral gods, but these are dead ones:

Lundo, Mardo, Merkredo, Jaudo, Vendredo, and Sabato.

Some readers may have noticed that these day names look familiar...that's because they are actually the names of the days in Esperanto. “Common” is Esperanto on Zirthus, not that I expect it to come up much.

Why bother? I've been wanting to observe time more accurately in the new campaign for a number of reasons including the seasons and weather, the specifics of how certain magic works under house rules, and a number of calculations for costs, recuperation, and other gaming mundanities. There are also religious observances and festivals to track. Streamlining the calendar itself will make this easier, and an index card to mark on easier to design.